Want to know what happened to Rick Ross? A cardiologists reveals the reason he’s on life support.
Rick Ross, 42, may be getting treated for an extremely severe level of pneumonia. Dr. Tanya Dutta, a cardiologist at Westchester Medical Center, EXCLUSIVELY told us how serious Rick’s condition might be based on his symptoms and his treatment, especially after it was revealed he was placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine. “Sometimes if pneumonia is so bad, not enough oxygen is making it in to the bloodstream through the lungs,” Dr. Dutta said. “The ECMO machine will take the place of your lungs until they improve and distribute oxygen into the bloodstream.” However, the amount of time Rick could be on the machine is really up in the air. Dr. Dutta added that you “can be on it days to weeks,” but that doctors “try to keep it as short as possible” because the patient has to be unconscious for the treatment.
The fact that Rick is on the machine indicated that his “pneumonia is at the most severe level.” “Sometimes people who are young can be hit very hard by a bacterial infection and then your body also activates such an overwhelming immune response,” Dr. Dutta added. “It can make your condition worse.”
Dr. Dutta revealed that the flu or “[c]ommon bacteria can give you severe pneumonia… or a viral pneumonia or infection, and then you get another bacterial infection on top of it.” However, just because Rick is on an ECMO machine, doesn’t mean he can’t make a full recovery. Dr. Dutta admits that “it’s an extremely effective way to save his life” and “buys time for the lungs to recover.”
Right before his trip to the hospital, Rick Ross was found “slobbing” at the mouth. Dr. Dutta revealed that this foaming is due to the fact his “lungs were so injured and he was struggling so hard to breathe, so after a while” his muscles couldn’t keep up, rendering him unconscious. Due to “extra fluid in the lungs caused by the pneumonia,” the “body’s response to it can cause fluid to come out of the mouth” resulting in the foaming.
There has been a lot of speculation on whether or not Rick had a heart attack, considering he was placed in a cardio unit. Dr. Dutta told us that sometimes pneumonia and a heart attack “can go together” because you’re “struggling so hard to get oxygen.” “He’s absolutely very, critically ill, but if he’s 42, his chances are better than if he was 82 to survive,” Dr. Dutta added. “Antibiotics start working fairly quickly, but [it] could take several days before you know if he will pull through.”
Click here to see pics of Rick and his Liz Halgethorn!
